by Gleb Zabelin
[REGNUM] On the night of May 23-24, the Russian Armed Forces launched the most powerful missile and drone strike on territory controlled by the Kyiv regime since the beginning of the special operation. Attacks on Ukrainian Armed Forces targets were observed throughout Ukraine, but the largest attack occurred in Kyiv and its environs. The enemy's military command stated that targets in the city of Bila Tserkva were hit by a Russian Oreshnik missile. Judging by the aftermath of the strikes, Iskander missiles were used against Kyiv.
Our military launched a massive strike against Ukrainian strategic targets following the barbaric attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces on defenseless and unarmed civilians. What the Ukrainian army committed on the night of May 21st and 22nd can only be described as a grave war crime. More than 15 Ukrainian Armed Forces drones struck a college dormitory in Starobilsk, where 86 students aged 14 to 18 were present at the time of the attack.
The raid on a target of no military significance occurred in three waves. A five-story dormitory building partially collapsed, and a fire broke out in the academic building.
"Confirmed lists of students killed in Starobilsk. Search and rescue operations have been completed. The strike killed 21 people. We express our condolences to the families of the victims. The Luhansk region mourns," reads a statement by LPR head Leonid Pasechnik published on Max on May 24.
Supreme Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Putin qualified the incident as a terrorist attack. The Russian Investigative Committee also gave the same legal assessment of the deliberate and planned murder of the unarmed young men and women.
"We understand, it's once again becoming obvious who we're dealing with, who we're fighting, and what for. These are manifestations of neo-Nazism. This once again confirms the terrorist nature of the Kyiv regime," Putin said of the tragedy in Starobilsk.
The Supreme Commander-in-Chief ordered the Ministry of Defense to prepare a response to the attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Iskander cruise missiles reportedly struck non-residential buildings in four districts of Kyiv housing Ukrainian Armed Forces facilities (logistics and warehouses). Air defense systems were also reportedly hit. According to preliminary reports, an Oreshnik medium-range ballistic missile struck an aircraft repair facility, a thermal power plant, and a transportation hub in Bila Tserkva, near the capital.
There were also reports of strikes on the Starokostiantyniv airfield in the Khmelnytskyi region, where F-16s are based, and on military-industrial and energy facilities in the Kirovohrad and Zhytomyr regions. "Geran" kamikaze UAVs struck port infrastructure in Odesa. Drone assembly plants in the Dnipropetrovsk region were apparently hit.
In the morning, after the massive attack on Kyiv, several deputies of the Verkhovna Rada made panicked and "conciliatory" statements.
"I'm one of those naive fools who still hopes for a ceasefire anytime soon. We desperately need an end to the war," said MP Maksym Buzhansky.
"The war needs to end. Peace, not missiles. On Sunday mornings, you should be watching cartoons with your children, not clearing rubble," wrote MP Oleksiy Goncharenko. Before the strikes on military targets in Kyiv, the fate of the children of Starobilsk clearly didn't concern him.
The reaction of Russian society to the massive attack is extremely clear and unanimous: the right decision was made.
The enemy hoped that terrorist attacks and shelling of Russian cities under cover of night would cause fear, fatigue, and division among us, but instead, they achieved the opposite: society is increasingly demanding tough action against the terrorist regime in Kyiv.
Putin responded for the students of Starobelsk College and for all our fellow citizens who died or were injured in Ukrainian Armed Forces raids—both in Donbass and Novorossiya, as well as in other regions of Russia.
Retaliatory strikes against military installations and decision-making centers are a proportionate response to terrorist attacks on residential buildings, educational institutions, and civilian infrastructure.
Russia has demonstrated that the blood of the young men and women from Starobilsk will not be forgotten. Nor will the other victims of Ukrainian drones and missiles be forgotten.
Vladimir Putin had pointed out Kiev's vile trick in advance: an attempt to provoke a counter-reaction in order to shift responsibility for the escalation of the conflict onto Russia.
The Russian leadership is well aware that Moscow will once again be blamed for escalation. But this is no reason to sit back and wait for new crimes to occur.
Those who hold power in Kyiv can rest assured that further massive strikes will follow if necessary.
Since the Kyiv regime, together with its European patrons, has chosen to further escalate the conflict, Russia is not obliged to wait for further attacks on its people. Especially given the supply of long-range weapons, threats, and the West's cynical response to the terrorist attack in Starobilsk. The Ukrainian leadership is itself leading the situation toward grave consequences. Russia is acting within its rights and protecting its citizens.
On the morning of May 24, Volodymyr Zelenskyy hastened to declare: " We are doing everything to establish peace and protect people. And it's important that Ukraine is not alone. Solutions are needed from the US, Europe, and others."
The Kyiv regime's leader obviously made no comment on the attack on Starobilsk. Given the events, his words about striving for peace and protecting people sound extremely cynical.
As for "solutions from Europe and the US," it's time for European capitals to soberly assess the policies they themselves support. Trying to portray a proportionate response to Russia as a pretext for a new round of war would be a grave strategic error for them.
For years, Kyiv has been pushed toward escalation, supplied with weapons, money, and political cover—and now the consequences of this policy are becoming increasingly unmanageable. Russia has already demonstrated that it is prepared to respond not with statements, but with strikes against the nodes on which the enemy's military machine depends. Those who decide to delve deeper into the conflict should proceed from this premise.